Michelle Obama put her arm around the bereaved mother as they watched the lid
of the coffin close slowly on a schoolgirl dressed in purple. Hadiya
Pendleton was killed by a stray bullet fired in Chicago’s South Side less
than a week after performing in President Obama’s inauguration parade.

While his wife comforted mourners at the 15-year-old’s funeral, President
Obama was at the White House working on a State of the Union address to be
delivered tomorrow night. In it, he will call on the nation to finally
accept meaningful change to its historic relationship with firearms.